Vitamin D3 and its metabolites in the tomato plant.

The tomato plant has been demonstrated to have vitamin D-like activity. The activity was present in the leaves but not in the fruit of the plant. The chloroform extract of the leaves (containing free vitamin D and its metabolites) and the ethanol extract of the residue (containing the glycosidic forms) were partially purified by column chromatography. The fractions corresponding to authentic vitamin D3, 25-hydroxy vitamin D3 and 1,25-dihydroxy vitamin D3 were tested for biological activity and analysed by HPLC. The results indicate that the plant contains vitamin D3, 25-hydroxy vitamin D3 and 1,25-dihydroxy vitamin D3 and their glycosidic forms. Free vitamin D3 was observed to be the major active principle and the concentration of the free forms of the metabolites was higher than the corresponding glycosides.